I recently moved entirely to Pi from Claude Code. There's a bit of more upfront work in that I am taking the time to customize it to the way I want it to work, but I it is clear that it will benefit me in the end. It adds a level of intentionality to everything; all the building blocks I am adding to it in terms of templates, extensions, and skills are, obviously, things I want.

And I have been using Chinese models with it. It was not anything ideological. Those models are both excellent and cheap. Hard to beat that combo.

But on top of that, the sort of output I am getting in Pi in relation to what I got in CC is refreshing, in that nothing seems to be hidden from me.

And yeah, the ability to switch models mid-session is an interesting one, especially with branching; where I can branch to switch to a different model and still go back to the original branch with the original model.